Friday, July 22, 2005

Dutch WCs: Odour incubators


At work, there are 2 stalls in the bathroom, both with doors that go all the way up to the ceiling and leave only a tiny crack at the bottom. Once inside the stall, there is a (relatively) strong lock that seals you inside this solitary room that fits a single toilet. Most 'WC's (water closets) are built this way, they are, literally, closets, where you are fully enclosed to take in the nastiest odours, produced by yours truly (YOU, not me, well... me too. hehe)

The toilets are structured this way for privacy's sake, something the Dutch favour highly. Since they are the most densely populated country in the world, they really like to build walls (both physically and psychologically!) If by chance you were to run out of toilet paper, you're on your own, there is no way you could ask your next door neighbour to pass you a few squares. Luckily, this has never happened to me before.

Anyway, everytime I go into the bathroom and there is someone who just came out, it is always a toss-up which door I should go into. Behind one door is a fresh, fragrant stall that has not been used for at least 10 minutes. The other door, however, is guaranteed to reek of recent rising wafts of stank from whatever the previous person was doing. The key here is not to offend the person who is currently washing their hands. So.. sometimes even though it is obvious which stall should be chosen (from listening to where the post-flush noise is coming from), I would have to go into the not so pleasant option.

...I don't call them odour incubators for no reason. *gag*

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